"I request that the Fleet Admiral immediately order him stripped of all duties and rank, classify him as a criminal of the highest level, and issue a worldwide warrant for his arrest!"
The cold, anguished voice of Marine Headquarters Vice Admiral "Wise Fox" Pokato struck everyone's heart in the Fleet Admiral's Office like a heavy hammer.
The atmosphere froze solid at that moment.
The muscles in "Steel Bone" Kong's ever-imposing face twitched uncontrollably. Looking at the old subordinate who had worked alongside him for decades, and the indignant conservative officers behind him, he felt an unprecedented fury surge straight to the top of his head.
A worldwide warrant?
For a Navy Hero who had just single-handedly destroyed a kingdom steeped in evil, freed tens of thousands of slaves, and even defeated "Giant Man" Buck, whose bounty stood at nine hundred million Beli, head-on?
This was the greatest joke in the Marines' eight-hundred-year history!
"Pokato!" Kong's voice was as low as a volcano on the verge of eruption. "Do you know what you're saying?! Yas was carrying out the highest directive issued personally by the Five Elders! Everything he did was in the service of 'justice'!"
"Justice?!" Pokato took an agitated step forward, his cloudy yet piercing eyes fixed on Kong. "Fleet Admiral! Please open your eyes and look at this newspaper! You call this justice?!"
He pointed at the apocalyptic image in the newspaper of Yas hovering above an abyss of magma, countless slaves kneeling in worship behind him, his voice trembling violently with anger.
"Slaughtering a whole kingdom alone! Piercing the earth's crust with one blow! That is power only a god could possess! Those are acts only a demon could commit! We are Marines! Guardians who maintain the world's order! Not a pack of executioners free to do